Ascoli Piceno, absolute jewel

Ascoli Piceno is a provincial capital of the Marche region; rises 154 meters above sea level and has 52,000 inhabitants. This splendid medieval city is considered one of the most monumental in Italy. Furnished with towers and bell towers, wrapped in travertine that covers almost all of its historic center. Ancient capital of the Piceni, conquered by the Romans with the whole region in 286 BC. C, the city was dominated for a long time by the barbarians, the Franks, Frederick II and Francesco Sforza who established a ruthless dictatorship there until 1482. It is said that Alaric, king of the Visigoths, struck by its beauty did not want to raze it to the ground . Together with the town of Fermo, Ascoli was the capital of the Marche until 1860. Its magnificent historic center is full of both civil and religious buildings from the medieval period. Wonderful is the Piazza del Popolo overlooked by the 13th century Palazzo dei Capitani del Popolo, the 14th century Church of San Francesco and the Loggia dei mercanti. Do not miss Piazza Arringo, the oldest in Ascoli, where you can find the Baptistery of San Giovanni, the Cathedral dedicated to the patron Saint Emidio, the Bishop's Palace and the Palazzo dell'Arengo, seat of the civic art gallery. Ascoli is also a city to be experienced while strolling through the streets of its historic center, where superb Renaissance squares open up, and among the streets that still have a typical Roman urban layout. A must to taste, in one of the many places that the city offers, the famous stuffed olives. On the first Sunday of August the famous Quintana knightly tournament takes place, a long parade in fifteenth-century costume of the inhabitants of the districts in which the city is divided.